Author Topic: graveyard scandal in Nebraska  (Read 2102 times)

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Offline franksolich

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graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« on: February 24, 2008, 09:04:43 AM »
Grave-diggers have been busy lately here in Nebraska, but it has nothing to do with the death-rate, which appears to be holding steady (although hippies in Nebraska--those "flower children" of the 1960s, now in their late 50s, early 60s--are becoming a noticeable portion of the deaths, soon to be fading away faster, and in greater numbers, than those valiant 80-90-year-olds of the Greatest Generation).

Grave-diggers haven't been digging new graves; they've been really busy undigging old graves.

Lots and lots of old graves, some of them 50 years old or older.

It's become a scandal, the newspapers of the state blaring forth with banner headlines almost every day the past few weeks.

Apparently Nebraska is the only state of the 50 states--the only one--where it is the county attorney, and not a physician, who determines the "official" cause of death.

It's been that way since statehood in 1867, it's based upon ancient English common law, and it's not likely to be changed anytime soon, despite this recent spate of unmausoleumings.

The latest involves the death of a woman more than 30 years ago, in the southwestern part of the state, who was discovered with a rope twisted around her neck, a knife stuck in her back, and a broken ankle.

The county attorney at the time stated the cause of death as "suicide."

The long-ago county attorney had good and valid reasons--at least from a legal insight and perspective--for decreeing that, although now it appears he may have--or may not--have been wrong.

County attorneys in Nebraska do not like this responsibility, quite reasonably thinking themselves not especially competent in things medical, but it's the law, and county attorneys obey it.

There have been suggestions--since 1917, actually--that Nebraska set up an official medical examiner, taking that onerous responsibility away from the county attorneys, but the problem is, the taxpayers of Nebraska, as with the taxpayers everywhere else, are overburdened as it is, with our supergenerous welfare spending.

Such as when the taxpayers forked over $750,000+ in three years to provide state-of-the-art psychiatric treatment to some kid, so as to prevent him from hurting himself and others.....and then the kid goes out and shoots up a shopping mall, and himself, anyway.

Nebraska can't afford an official state medical examiner, because of these other expenses.

So we're stuck with what we have.

Usually, when someone dies in a hospital, a physician will tell the county attorney the cause of death, after which the county attorney rubber-stamps it.  Being a legal professional, an attorney is not like to dispute the conclusions of a medical professional in matters medical.

But about 20% of all Nebraskans die at home.

And that's where the trouble starts; a physician, not being present--or not even ever having been aware the individual existed--is reluctant to draw conclusions about something he has not personally observed.

So the county attorney has to make his own conclusions.

And some of these apparently have been real Whoppers; several this past week alone, now involving disinterment and examination by professional medical personnel.  There's been lots and lots of certificates of death, some going back 50 years or more, remember, that have had to be corrected.

You know, I always kind of wondered about this.  When I was in college, an older brother of mine died in his sleep at home; he was 40 years old.  This was in Lincoln, Nebraska.

After I formally inspected and acknowledged it as being the body of my brother, I noticed that the first person contacted was the Lancaster County Attorney.  I had no idea why it was this way, but that's the way it was.

What was also unusual about it was that this brother lived well within the city of Lincoln, which has its own very large police department, but these were guys from the Lancaster County Sheriff's office, usually out patroling the rustic areas of the county, crowded in this house.

Now I guess I know why things were the way they were, and why a physician was, like, number 8 on the list of the Top 10 people to summon.

(Of course, in this instance, the cause of death, cardiac arrest, was easily discernible, and the county attorney made exactly the right call on it.)

Okay, summing up, going back to this latest scandal, actually it appears the long-ago county attorney made the best judgement he could possibly make, on that one woman with a rope twisted around her neck, a knife stuck in her back, and a broken ankle.

An attorney does not think like a physician or a policeman; an attorney thinks like an attorney.

There existed no evidence a second person had been in the house where that woman died; there existed no evidence of any forced entry; there existed no evidence of any threats.

Due to the lack of any such evidence, the long-ago county attorney, making a decision based upon facts, had to reasonably conclude the woman did it herself.  He probably didn't feel comfortable arriving at that decision, but for lack of anything suggesting a different possible occurrence, he had to come to that conclusion.

It's all very interesting, and there's a lot of it going on, since early January of this year.
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Offline SSG Snuggle Bunny

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2008, 09:53:04 AM »
...despite this recent spate of unmausoleumings.
nice
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Offline DixieBelle

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2008, 10:06:30 AM »
Very interesting frank. I'm trying to figure out how you stab yourself in the back and then hang yourself and end up with a broken ankle though. I'm sure a really good forensic specialist could run some possible scenarios. I'd love to know what really happened. These kinds of things interest me.
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Offline Lord Undies

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2008, 10:32:45 AM »
I went to visit my father's grave last week.  His body is in a large cemetery in Dallas.  As I was driving through to his gravesite I noticed a total of six graves which had each been covered with two sections of plywood.  One longwise and the other across.  There was a burial vault lid laying next to all but one of these odd graves.  There were no mounds of dirt to be seen.

I'm still puzzled.  I thought about stopping by the office and asking, but I think I would have come off as being too nosy.   

Offline DixieBelle

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2008, 10:38:03 AM »
^interesting.

I can remember visiting my grandfather's grave - he's buried in the military cemetary along with his parents. I can remember being shocked when my mother told me that they bury the first spouse 12(?) feet deep, cover them and then bury the last spouse directly on top instead of side-by-side. I don't know why I thought that odd....
I can see November 2 from my house!!!

Spread my work ethic, not my wealth.

Forget change, bring back common sense.
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No, my friends, there’s only one really progressive idea. And that is the idea of legally limiting the power of the government. That one genuinely liberal, genuinely progressive idea — the Why in 1776, the How in 1787 — is what needs to be conserved. We need to conserve that fundamentally liberal idea. That is why we are conservatives. --Bill Whittle

Offline djones520

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2008, 11:32:28 AM »
^interesting.

I can remember visiting my grandfather's grave - he's buried in the military cemetary along with his parents. I can remember being shocked when my mother told me that they bury the first spouse 12(?) feet deep, cover them and then bury the last spouse directly on top instead of side-by-side. I don't know why I thought that odd....

Smart practice.  Saves a lot of space.

Here in Japan, your not even allowed to be buried.  The space is so limited it's a national law to be cremated.  I think Thursdays are the day they do it.  You can sometimes smell it if the wind is right...
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Offline Zeus

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2008, 12:27:55 PM »
^interesting.

I can remember visiting my grandfather's grave - he's buried in the military cemetary along with his parents. I can remember being shocked when my mother told me that they bury the first spouse 12(?) feet deep, cover them and then bury the last spouse directly on top instead of side-by-side. I don't know why I thought that odd....

My father is buried above my Mother. That wasn't the part that I thought strange. The part I thoughts strange and somewhat chillish was seeing my name on the back of my parents common headstone. Seems it a new deal going on where the names of the Children are on the back of the parents headstone alone with dates of birth and death, oh and also stars by a name to denote military service.
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Offline mamacags

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2008, 12:54:02 PM »
Quote
The latest involves the death of a woman more than 30 years ago, in the southwestern part of the state, who was discovered with a rope twisted around her neck, a knife stuck in her back, and a broken ankle.

The county attorney at the time stated the cause of death as "suicide."


Sounds like what happens when someone criticises scientology.  Did you hear about the CO$ critic in Florida that happened to commit suicide this week.  Seems the spokeswoman for the county who said there was no foul play involved is a CO$ member. ::)
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Offline DixieBelle

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2008, 12:54:52 PM »
^oh that's weird. Never seen that. It was weird to see my grandmother's name on the double headstone since she's not dead yet. But that's common.....
I can see November 2 from my house!!!

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Forget change, bring back common sense.
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Offline Randy

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #9 on: February 24, 2008, 01:22:15 PM »
^oh that's weird. Never seen that. It was weird to see my grandmother's name on the double headstone since she's not dead yet. But that's common.....

My Mom died a couple of years ago. She wanted her ashes scattered at the Church they attended when they lived  in Boca Raton. Dad called to ask about doing that at the time and was told no, it was against the law but they were in the process of designing a memorial garden for the interment of cremains. Well long story short just a week short of 2 years later the garden was done and open for business. We went down for a brief service and to put the ashes to rest 2 weeks ago.

They have a circular walk with 4 short outshoots done with brick pavers. The names and dates of the folks there are engraved into a brick. To reserve your placement in the walk near loved ones you have to get your brick made when you get theirs done. It's sorta creepy to see the names of the living.

Offline franksolich

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #10 on: February 24, 2008, 03:32:21 PM »
Very interesting frank. I'm trying to figure out how you stab yourself in the back and then hang yourself and end up with a broken ankle though. I'm sure a really good forensic specialist could run some possible scenarios. I'd love to know what really happened. These kinds of things interest me.

That particular death, 30 years ago, has now been ruled a homocide rather than a suicide.

Based upon sheer speculation.

The prevailing assumption is that there was no evidence of a second person simply because the cops didn't see it, and if the cops didn't see it, it wasn't on their investigative reports for the county attorney to read and evaluate.

It's not like Nebraska cops have a whole lot of experience investigating suspicious deaths, as cops do in blue states and blue cities.

As for professional experts, those have to be imported here and paid (something more than the minimum wage, by the way), and the money isn't there.  When the taxpayers have already paid $750,000+ on state-of-the-art psychiatric care for a kid, and it turns out for naught, well, there's hardly anything left over for such things.

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Offline franksolich

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #11 on: February 25, 2008, 06:45:47 PM »
Well, there was another one today.

A death in 1992, described as a "suicide, a "self-inflicted" gunshot wound.

It's now been changed to "homocide."

But I don't understand one of the other alterations; the time of death was switched from "8:30" to "8:15."

I have no idea how this can be discerned sixteen years later.
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Offline Bondai

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2008, 07:59:19 PM »
Wow, that proves it. Vince Fosters death was a suicide. :cheersmate:


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Offline franksolich

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Re: graveyard scandal in Nebraska
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2008, 08:29:04 AM »
Well, here it is, a week later, and the word is that nothing's going to be changed; that county attorneys in Nebraska, despite that they don't like doing it, will still be the final determinants of causes of death.

It all has to do with money.

The taxpayers of Nebraska are pretty sore right now, having spent a fortune keeping a woman in an insane asylum for 72 years, and another fortune getting some kid Park Avenue or Beverly Hills psychiatric care so he wouldn't go out and shoot people in a shopping-mall.

Not to mention that yes, even here in Nebraska, we have a few subway cats.

I had commented on some other thread here some time ago, about while most people simply watch the top of the water, where it's going, in most things it's good to look at the undercurrents and cross-currents and counter-currents too. 

This Nebraska resentment at wasteful social services spending is a real phenomenon, but underneath the surface of the water.

The "trick" is in figuring out how to harness it, how to utilize it, to get politicians elected who demand closer scrutiny and tighter restrictions on dispensations from the public treasury.

This resentment is there, and it's a strong one--but it needs brought out, brought up to the surface, and used.

A lot of energy there, untapped.

About all that's going to come out of this graveyard scandal is the "suggestion" that county attorneys order more autopsies--currently, in suspicious-death cases, only 27% are autopsied, and it'd probably be a good idea to bring that percentage up some.

There's been the usual cracks about "dumb cops" who can't handle homocide investigations, but I beg to differ; I rather think this reflects well upon Nebraska, where homocides are so rare nobody gets a whole lot of experience dealing with them.

Suppose one morning my fellow alum Skins stepped outside his front door, garbed in bathrobe and slippers, to retrieve the newspaper from the front porch.

And suppose Skins suddenly sees a bison--more than a ton, seven feet tall at the shoulder-blades--standing on his front porch, snorting and pounding.

Well, what is my fellow alum to do?

Probably Skins would do a whole lot of wrong things, react the wrong ways.

Same thing here.

Just as my fellow alum has never dealt with a bison on his front porch, most Nebraska cops haven't had to deal with murder; it's something totally new to them, and so naturally they react in all sorts of ways, many of those ways not the right ones.

These aren't "dumb cops," any more than Skins is dumb; these are just people dealing with a phenomenon they never imagined would happen, and never had any prior experience.

 
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